Toronto 
The rising costs of necessities are causing more people to rely on food banks and leading to a crisis-level food bank use, finds the annual Who’s Hungry report released by Daily Bread Food Bank and North York Harvest Food Bank.
Credit: Daily Bread Food Bank
The report details the state of food insecurity in the City of Toronto.
As per Daily Bread Food Bank, there have been 1.99 million visits to food banks over the past twelve months.
With the cost of food purchased from stores increasing at the fastest pace year-over-year since August 1981 and food inflation at 11.4% and average monthly rent over $2,400 in Toronto, Toronto Food Banks expect that the demand is projected to push that number to over two million for the 2022 calendar year.
The situation is very dire as the report says, food bank clients have a median of $8.01 left per person, per day, for food and all other necessities after paying rent and utilities. This is less than last year’s median of $9.17 per day.
The average number of pounds of food distributed across Toronto has increased from 389,962 pounds weekly in 2021 to 626,452 pounds during the last week of August 2022.
Scarborough and downtown Toronto experienced the highest needs with almost half a million visits.
A recent food security study by Ottawa Public Health found that to eat healthy by including healthy food from the Nutritious Food Basket, a single person needs around $392 and an average family of four (two adults 31 to 50, a boy aged 14 and a girl aged 7) needs around $1088 per month.
2022 Who is Hungry report finds:
- After rent and utilities are paid, food bank clients have a median of $8.01 left per person, per day, to pay for food and all other necessities. This is a drop from last year’s median of $9.17 per day.
- Food bank clients report a median annual income of $12,732 – nearly 50% below Canada’s official poverty line.
- The median for racialized people is $7.75 per person, per day. Those who had arrived in Canada within the last year have $3.81 per person, per day.
- Among those reporting employment income, 80% live in deep poverty (75% of the poverty line).
- 33% of respondents reported employment as their primary source of income. Of those employed, 60% reported holding a precarious job with low wages and little to no benefits.
- 87% of food bank clients live in unaffordable housing. As defined by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, this means that they are paying 30% or more of their income on housing, compared to 45% of residents overall in Toronto.
- 69% of food bank clients were paying at least half of their income on housing, putting them at risk of homelessness.
- 18% of clients were paying 100% of their income on housing costs.
- 39% of food bank clients report that they do not have people in their lives to count on in times of need. That is five times higher than the general population at 8%.
- The portion of seniors who are food bank clients has risen from one in ten to one in six.
- 29% of seniors reported they sometimes/often did not have enough food to eat.
- 87% of seniors reported living in housing considered unaffordable.
Credit: Who is Hungry 2022 Report
Daily Bread Food Bank and North York Harvest Food Bank are calling on all levels of government to prioritize poverty reduction strategies including guaranteed income security and the elimination of systemic poverty, solutions to Toronto’s housing affordability crisis and mitigating the steep increases in the cost of living.
Executive Director of North York Harvest Food Bank, Ryan Noble said in a statement, “While food banks play a vital role in the lives of thousands of Torontonians, they cannot reduce poverty. We need bold, systemic changes which require governments at all levels to act.”
Credit: Daily Bread Food Bank
To support the release of this report, and to raise awareness about food insecurity, the CN Tower in Toronto and Toronto sign at Nathan Phillips Square will be lit up in Daily Bread’s colours of yellow and green on November 14, 2022.
A detailed report is available here.
